Pictures
Shown above as it appears Mar. 04, 2014, The missing veneer has all been replaced and finished with shellac, new chimneys and splat made, and columns painted with partial decoration. Shown with a period dial that is not original to the clock. The tablet is a print behind glass and is temporary. The splat and columns will be decorated later.
The original door lock and brass escutcheon survived. The key is an old key that I modified to fit the lock. The lock was badly rusted but fully operational.
Shown above as it appears Mar. 04, 2014, with door open.
Shown above as it appears Mar. 04, 2014, with dial removed to reveal the original wooden movement. The pendulum bob is believed to be original. The original weights are with the clock but the weights shown are lighter 2 1/2 lb. weights which I plan to use to run the clock.
This Seth Thomas clock has a cutout place in the back where the back plate of the movement extends flush with the back of the clock. The original metal cover is missing and has been replaced with a new aluminum dust cover.
The original wooden movement was still in the case but required extensive work to get it into perfect running condition as shown here. The oversized Delrin-AF bushings noticeable at the winding arbors were necessary due to the amount of wood damaged by earlier attempts by someone to bush the openings with flattened strips of copper.
Shown above front and back as found. The case is actually falling apart and was propped up to allow the picture to be taken.
Shown above with the dial, door, and movement removed after being cleaned up a bit and reglued.
The bottom of the case suffered the most water damage. Three of the original dowels were badly rotted and replaced. The original screws were too badly rusted to remove, so a couple new screws were added along with glue. All the screw holes were sealed with epoxy. A small piece of new wood was set in where there was excessive damage to the area of the hinge pin.
One of the wooden cable pulleys was missing and the other was badly worn. One new pulley was made and the single original pulley trued up. Both were fitted with new axles and Delrin-AF bushings.
The missing top parts were fabricated from new material. The outer surfaces were veneered with the same material used on the rest of the case and door.
The wooden movement had extensive damage from failed earlier poor repair work and having been bushed with various brass bushings, coiled strips of brass and flatten pieces of copper wire.
Shown above are just some of the corroded metal bushings that were removed.
Many of the wheels required replacement teeth. The picture above shows some of the repairs. At first look it may appear that excessive amounts of the original wheel were removed but a closer look at the picture below reveals the large damaged area that had to be cut out. This clock is not headed to a museum so the objective was a strong repair and no attempt was made to to make the repair invisible.
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Seth Thomas Half-column and Splat With
Wooden Movement, circa 1828-30
This clock is an ongoing restoration project. It
was acquired from an estate auction at Nelson
Auction Gallery, Trappe, MD on September 23,
2013. Auction staff advised that it was found in
the basement of the home and moisture damage was
obvious as the case was mostly falling apart. As
shown without the splat and upper parts it stands
30 ½' tall x 17 ½" wide x 4 3/16"
deep. This is the type that has the back cut out
for the movement. The original tin or zinc plate
to cover the back of the movement is missing. The
dust caps are also missing. The original upper parts and
splat are missing as are the original hands and the top
and bottom glass. Pretty much all the original veneer is
gone except for one side. The original lock is
present but badly rusted. There is no key. One
wooden weight pulley was missing. What are
believed to be the original 3 ½ lb. cast iron
weights were with the clock. Most of the label is
present but like the rest of the clock it is very
dirty. The Seth Thomas wooden movement found in
the clock is believed to be original.
The movement was first removed and disassembled
and I discovered that nearly every pivot hole had
been bushed with various brass bushings, brass
strips, and copper strips. All were badly
corroded and the wood around the bushings was in
some places "soft" from having been
oiled and a bit mutilated by crude bushing
installation. All of the pivot holes for metal
pivots except the escape wheel outer pivot were
bushed with bushings made from Delrin-AF. The
outer escape wheel pivot hole was bushed with
brass as it would have been originally. The
bushings had to be larger than usual because of
the damaged wood around the pivot holes. About 14
teeth were replaced on various wheels, mostly to
replace sloppy or failed previous repairs. The
strike side second arbor pinion required a leaf
replacement, again this was to correct an older
repair. The hour pipe on this old style movement
has a square tip to hold the hour hand. Much of
the square tip was missing and this was repaired.
One wooden click had to be made to replace a
damaged one. Someone had previously cut off part
of the wooden pivots for the strike control arbor
(probably an attempt to facilitate easier assembly) and while it probably would have worked, this
just did not look right so these pivots were
replaced. And of course new nylon weight cords
were installed. Lose pillars were reglued and the
entire movement gently cleaned. (No water or
water based cleaners were used). The wood used
for replacement parts was Cherry.
The movement was reassembled and fitted with a
suspension spring and leader rod. The presumed to be original brass covered zinc pendulum bob was cleaned up and fitted with a new rate adjusting hanger wire. The escapement required some adjustment
to get more or less even drops. The movement was
mounted on a test stand and a 2 lb. weight
attached to each train. The movement started
immediately and after being put in beat ran strong. It has a 30-tooth escape wheel
and a tooth count indicated 5400 BPH with a
17.39" pendulum. With a 2 lb. driving weight
the total pendulum swing at the bottom is 3 ¾
inches. I reduced the weight to 1 lb. on each
side and the clock continued to run but would
stop before unlocking the strike. I increased the
weight to 1 ½ lb. and the clock continued to run
and strike properly but had minimal recoil. I
found a pair of 2 ½ lb. OG weights for
this clock which are working just fine. With the Delrin-AF bushings I see no
need to subject almost 200 year old wooden wheels
to the force of the original 3 ½ lb. weights,
although I am confident that the repairs are more
than sturdy enough to stand the load. In spite of
all the repaired parts, this movement turned out
to be the smoothest running movement of this type
that I have ever had. It is an excellent time keeper as well.
The case was more or less stabilized. Most
of the filth was cleaned maway, old putty
removed from the door, and lose pieces glued or
screwed together. The bottom board took the worst
moisture damage. Actually the board is not too
bad but the wooden dowels had rotted and the
steel screws rusted mostly away. Three of the
dowels were drilled out and replaced, one piece
of wood was replaced near the door hinge, and the
back boards re nailed. The half columns were
removed and cleaned up and will be stenciled
later. The one original wooden cord pulley was trued up
and bushed with Delrin-AF. A matching pulley was
made from Cheery wood and both pulleys were fitted
with new axles and fasteners. The missing veneer was replaced with new. The match-book veneer on the door also serves to hold the glass and was constructed by laminating several layers of the veneer crossing the grain with each layer to achieve the required strength. The old lock was cleaned up and an old key modified to fit.
The original dial is wooden and has been badly messed up
by someone who tried to repaint it. The center
hole had been butchered for some unknown reason,
and the wooden board is warped. It is 11 ½"
x 12 ½" and would need to be flattened and the butchered hole filled in and totally repainted. In as much as many other original pieces are missing, I opted to replace the dial with the period dial shown in the second picture.
I have no idea what the bottom glass was supposed
to be. I've seen a few pictures of similar
clocks but doubt if they had their original
glass. I would like to hear from anyone who has
information about the type of original tablet
that would have been in this clock
The splat and upper parts were missing and reconstructed from new material based of pictures of similar clocks. I'm not sure about the shape of the splat board, but I like this one, which was scaled from a photo of a similar clock. It is held with a couple screws from the back so it can easily be changes to a different shape if desired. Don't
know about making a stencil for the splat and
half-columns but I have a professional artist friend that does that sort of thing so perhaps that will be the next step.
The clock is now a part of my collection and enjoy it very much. It is also the oldest clock in my collection and one of four wooden movement clocks that I run every day.
This clock is NOT for sale.
The information on this page is believed to
the writer to be correct at the date of posting but is presented with
no guarantee expressed or implied. Pictures were a true representation of this clock at the time of posting but may not be current. Please contact me if you believe
that any of the above information is incorrect, or if you
wish to share additional information about this
clock.
Unless otherwise credited, the pictures
and information on this page are the property
of Robert H Croswell & Greenfield Clock shop, 4180 Main Street, Trappe, MD 21673
and may not be sold or used for commercial
purposes without permission. © 2016
email:
bobby@greenfieldclockshop.com
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